Click on the title of this post for viewing.
Or: http://www.ci.glenwood-springs.co.us/packet/Addtl%20Info%20-%20Draft%202-3-11%20Agenda.pdf
Item #10: 'Discussion and/or Action on 2012 Tourism Marketing Contract' makes this an upcoming meeting that is extremely important to the citizens of 81601.
All citizens are urged to watch this council meeting.
You do not have to buy into council's mandate that they want you to appear in person. You can review and watch from the privacy and comfort of your own home. Simply go to the City of Glenwood Springs homepage and click on 'live feed'.
Should you miss the meeting, you can now also simply go to the video library link under the City Council sub-category and pull it up on file. Conveniently broken out into sections of meeting so that you do not have to endure sitting through the entire meeting.
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In the past, smalltown7 has posted 'after the fact'. Always hoping that their belief in giving every entity under Current Watch the benefit of the doubt would bring same to be forthcoming. That turned out to not be the case, yet the wheels of rightful things kept turning and the end result of victory came to the voices behind the scenes.
Now, that the tourism marketing portion of the Accommodations Tax is safely in City oversight hands and your new board has held firm gaining control of the 2011 contract and vendor, what faces the citizens of 81601 is the last section of your list of concerns.
Do you get an RFP for all future awards, including 2012? Is there going to be public awareness of the results of audits forthcoming from private hands? Is Strawberry Days truly a civic event and if so, why is there no city oversight or handling of all the money pertaining to the event? So much has torn Glenwood Springs apart in the battle to get Ordinance #12, Series of 2010, where are we now and how do we pull together? What more lies ahead that is in the public eye?
As these concerns unfold over the next few months, Glenwood Springs also has a City Council election coming up. A very, very important one with (4) major seats in play.
81601 has some very strong and incredibly capable competitors stepping up for these seats. This is likely the most important election for City Council and Mayor 81601 has ever known. The smalltown7 group urge anyone qualified by living in the correct ward who desires to do what is best for Glenwood Springs to step up.
This time, there is no longer a fear of retaliation nor is there a need to be concerned over back-door politics. smalltown7 makes it known now that Russ Arensman is the only incumbent they feel could be a possible to stay. If you will go back and watch all videos and read minutes from the past few years, you will see that Arensman has grown throughout the bloodshed of 2009 and 2010. He has strong competition who is also very fit. smalltown7 makes it known at this time that their decision is not to disclose their personal choices. That decision making turned out to be very wise as Ordinance #12, Series of 2010 began to wind up to really be possible.
You, the citizens of 81601, have done an incredible job with your new board. smalltown8 is greatly encouraged and so very glad to see the growth.
As this group looks at the tasks remaining, they see that once again, the slippery slope of disinformation and/or omission, is still a factor attempting to side-track your progress.
"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen." John Wooden
We are not certain exactly how to do it, but have decided that a vital role for this group is to keep pointing out the little details:
This evening (January 20, 2011) City Council meets.
http://www.ci.glenwood-springs.co.us/packet/agenda.htm
- The two items of likely significance at this meeting are unfortunately at the discretion of Council to disclose.
- Those items are #5A pertaining to approval of minutes from special closed door meeting held January 12, 2011 and Item #9 Council Reports on Board, Committee and Commission Meetings.
- Relevant to both item #5A and Draft Agenda for February 3, 2011 are the meeting dates of the new tourism oversight and promotion board. http://www.ci.glenwood-springs.co.us/boards/2010_MeetingDates.pdf
- If you have been following the progress of Ordinance #12, Series of 2010 and 81601's new board, then you are aware that the meeting held on January 13, 2011 was the first meeting after they had set their mandate that in order for approval of the 2011 Tourism Marketing Contract to be given, both oversight of spending in all contracts by the vendor (and) the removal of accounting from the Chamber of Commerce vendor and the Chamber Board. Accounting to be placed into private hands for accounting and audit purposes.
- Located for your review on older minutes are Leo McKinney's comments that he was wondering if the tourism board could be stopped from their executive session request last fall.
- Located for your review on older minutes is Dave Sturges placing a disclaimer of liability on to the meeting record after the board's mandate was given.
- Yet, our council is verifiably not transparent in all matters pertaining to the accommodations tax and have been that way for decades.
- A very important area that voters need to ask some hard questions about are the number of closed door sessions this council has gone into. The dates of their doing so are significant and will likely reveal how significant as the months ahead unfold in the public eye. For now, smalltown7 urges you to keep a close eye on upcoming ventures and awards of contracts where the accommodations tax are concerned. Ask questions on closed door meetings. Check with your tourism board members and make sure they are comfortable with where they are at between their last meeting of January 13, 2011 and council's agenda for February 3, 2011.
- The only 'rush' there has ever been is the one that puts the tourism contract into the coffers of the Chamber as the sole source vendor all these years. That is no longer the citizens of 81601's concern and you can safely and freely focus on your goals and aspirations for revitalizing the assets of our community.
31 comments:
Glad to see comments enabled again.
Just finishing watching the council meeting 1/20 and can't believe my eyes or my ears listening to them on chamber meeting review from and tourism meeting review.
This town is so corrupt at some care level, that is the only answer there can be for that one organization to run the cajones off every authority we have.
RFP that tourism 2012. This council saturated the new board with chamber board members who are scared to death of Virgili and the power brokers sitting at the top of the Chamber Board.
This is public money and by god, we need a forensic audit. Doesn't it speak volumes to realize they try at every turn (and succeed) to talk authorities out of doing one.
Vote every single one of these yahoos out of there.
I got my feed notice of this blogpost around 5. Our jaws dropped at 8 or so watching council recap other board meetings they went to. It's like exactly what you say smalltown. Every one of these really significant reveals comes out of paying attention to every meeting and every detail. We are stunned at our house watching this town blink every time the bully rears up. It worked a year ago to start boycotting the chamber board businesses. We still have never returned to Alpine bank and never will. Property shop will never get another referral from us. City council election? Vote every single one of them out. Every one, there are great replacements waiting in the wings. Ones who have the guts to stand up and watch the backs of the new tourism board and who don't let power just pickup the phone and run lives. That reveal of chamber and tourism board meetings last night was damning. Thanks for the heads up. Incredible that we have to watch dog our own leaders.
Now McKinney even making sure he gets it on record that the airport board is holding off doing anything until they see what kind of a council we end up with. Anybody else notice how much different they all are looking and acting, especially the stone face of city attorney Shute since the new video feed library is up and running and the tourism board minutes are open to the public? Whole different tune when they know they are watched. There are some good people stepping up to run. Vote them in and get some support for those in the line of fire.
I don't think comments are back on. Mine didn't show up on the blog.
You guys don't have ESP. Any idiot can see what we're dealing with here after hearing what's going on behind the scenes last night. For what it's worth, council members look stunned.
Whose surprised that they aren't backing up the new tourism board now?
Gutless wonders. All of them.
They aren't stunned. They're leaving the new board hanging. That was unbelievable to see last night. Thanks for the heads up. Who knew?
If there was a closed door meeting on the 12th and the board met on the 13th, then now it is suspicious to hear what's gone on behind the scenes at chamber meeting. Sounds like somebody's putting on the press again. Be careful, it's not worth being put in the path of obvious power abuses everywhere. There isn't anybody who is stopping them and that seems to now be proven if even council is backing down and not supporting the tourism board. Sounds like somebody's full press is still working power holders. Agreed it's time to get them all out of there and make sure. And they wonder why nobody will appear in front of them anymore or sit needed board seats. It's not safe to.
Your comments are going to reach the site and go live. We have just gone back to moderating like we did in 2009 when details started coming in after you all felt safe.
We still pass the moderating duty around so we are not with one person chained to the site.
We still have whistles, ourselves and our families and businesses to protect. Somehow, one of our 7 got revealed and the massacre of their life has started. It isn't just city council not standing up like you saw last night. For now, until the court can get in place, there are no cops and no D.A. to stop any of it. If we hold a comment back, it's just like before. Your saying too much and endangering someone even though you may not mean to.
Just email us smalltown8@gmail.com if you want to know why your not live.
Don't trust the PI hub. It's not safe.
Kaup and her 'hearsay' comment should be lame ducked.
This thing is so far out of control it's gone way beyond any kind of consideration to be given to authorities of any kind.
Good for the airport board. Protecting their own until they can see what they have to work with.
April isn't that far off.
Arensman used duplicate bookkeeping. What do they expect? The chamber bookkeeper is the same one that is the bookkeeper for the husband CPA and the builder who built the McMansion. I know. My 1099 has come from that bookkeeper many times over out of Crawford Construction. Anybody ever find out if the '05 whistles still have all their copies? Jesus, what total idiot would not wonder at any oversight council that even lets a hired vendor talk down the board they put in place to be a guard? Nobody is that dumb.
It's not a question of intelligence, BCG.
This whole thing is a question of power abuse.
At this point, a very scary place for all of us in this community.
We are deeply troubled by Shelley Kaup's wave of her hand and comment of 'hearsay'.
To his credit, Bershynl has never cut the chamber any slack since last Spring. Steckler and Arensman look genuinely troubled, Christiansen talks the talk but always caves to the chamber and it's board, just like he did again last night. What happens now?
There simply is no excuse for the abuses of power and the apathy of our officials.
Seeing the obvious having crept so far as into our judicial system late last spring after watching the obvious trail of how that got there, revulsion at the destroying of lives and now the obvious in council last night; it's almost too much to take.
I think people are just so shocked and stunned, they have no words.
There's nothing that can be done about this weakness in council.
Every leader in this whole thing hopelessly failed a community years ago when they allowed enough social harm to come to the early whistles. Looking the other way when she first started gaining confidence that no one would ever touch her was a travesty for us back then.
This all raging fire and power out of control that human life is at stake, with authorities and leaders doing nothing, is heart breaking.
That doesn't change the fact that we can't do anything about any of it. Obvious at this point that power will rule here.
In a few days or a week or so the minutes will be available from the tourism board mtg. There's never any access to the chamber minutes and what good would they be anyway, they will say whatever they want them to say.
Another month to six weeks of time to maybe get some protection relief for people we love.
What's for sure, is that in April we have power. We can clean house and there are some awfully good people stepping up. Really, really good people that will make fine leaders that we need.
Note to Self:
Go over to the box and write up some promo's for John Duven, Mike Henry, Ted Edmonds, Dirk Myers, Todd Leahy, Michael Gamba.
Answer to your emails:
Yes, it's the same shared verizon IP. We all still are under the umbrella of 8 and remote log. We don't have time right now to get deeper into this.
Yes, one of the group of 7 and his family has been exposed. Yes, they are being viral attacked on line and yes, it's obvious. There is no truth to the rumor going around that their kids have been subjected. We don't have cops. There just are not going to be any, it looks like. The court system has to move before any of it gets ironed out and we have to stay zero'd in on that goal.
FCE is right.
Nothing can be done about this except to just watch and help a bunch of new blood get elected in April.
Everybody on our end.
Says thanks for the outpour.
Stecklers comment on not even supposed to talk about financial? Word has it that came down so they can keep it tight. Still acting like no one out here really knows whats going on. Dress it up however you want, 81601 hasn't wanted this money in chamber hands for years and has wanted an RFP for years. The tourism board may have just been acting on it being inappropriate for a vendor to have any power, but they still were acting.
And obviously not backed up by council who still sits in back pockets or are just blind sheep. There's nothing that can go back over 14+ years of all the problems, lack of performance compared to whats out there and now something as malignant as cancer that this vendor has always had at the table. They can slap spray paint all over their rot and still we are back at the same point. This tax has been abused for social power, greed and political gain for as long as it's been around. There's only one common denominator in that equation, our councils are only guilty of either apathy or lack of spine.
Was talking with a good friend who sits on a BOCC elsewhere in CO. Ran all this by him.
'..failure of duty that results in any group or person having control over your duty that's solely your responsibility, is not just a moral and ethical failure as a leader, it's a potentially criminal act. The answers should not have to be brought out in the open by sitting idly by, tossing the can of worms up in the tree, shaking the branches to see what falls out. Get answers by putting a leader in place.'
Nothing is right about this situation.
Ted Edmonds or Dirk Myers both need to insure a council seat with one of them being given the reins as Mayor. Then step right smack in the middle of the power.
The good news is that whatever they decide it will be done over after elections because anything less than finally making the chamber perform just like any other vendor with no special treatment and putting this for RFP, is against any code of ethics and duty of an elected group.
If elections don't get it done, then the suffering out there will get it done at trial. Truth as Beeson would say, hurts.
Once some kind of leadership and control gets seated, then it's time to look at recalls of any CC member that knowingly took any of this garbage at face value or participated in any way.
We are not barbarians and we have laws. Our boycott of chamber and board has not stopped either. It's appalling to see what's hanging like a black cloud over this town and the lack-luster revenues prove it.
Support any member of the tourism board that's asking questions. Watch every move until some kind of control is in place over what's coming out of the chamber.
Then vote, repeal, recall.
What a disappointment that they just didn't fully support every decision of the tourism board and treat the chamber like what they are.
A vendor. For too long treated like royalty with council in escort. Their performance is abysmal and non-performing. We have not had a boost of anything in years. Not months, years now. Two of them and almost three. Bike race? BFD, people. They come here anyway. Round up the money that's unaccounted for, take back the cash cow of Strawberry Days, force them to pay back the grant fund and then do it ourselves.
We definitely would perform better.
I think your right. People are just so shell shocked they don't know what to say. Pretty hard for any of these council members and authorities to put the cow back in the barn now. They judged before they looked and did it paying homage to the power. Meanwhile back at the barn, leaving the fox in the hen house. Anybody ever find out where Kate Collins unpaid salary went? When you unprecedented pay a vendor all of their contract up front, in cash, without paying them in increments and performance based like every other city vendor, you get credit for what they don't spend. Comprenda?
And how about those months of nobody in that spot and Lindsay just as interim?
Anybody find out where the rest of the $30K went from grant fund, only $10K was returned.
Anybody ever follow through with that weak order from the Mayor to the chamber to start pushing some real numbers in performance?
Like, say maybe the ton spent on 125 year birthday when there wasn't even advertising for it and only locals signed up for the birthday freebies?
BTW, exactly who is it, if the new board is not going to be supported and wiped clean of being stocked by the vendor's own board member; that oversees the vendor during the life of the contract? We've never had anyone. Just hand them a check, they put Bannon on books and off they go. I'll concur with getting some recalls in place of any elected enforcement that allows even just that.
And that's only the past 8 months or so.
Add it up over 24 years.
Your right, 22. There aren't any leaders, there are no cops, there is no D.A., there is no city manager. There isn't even representation for the people when the ones we put there are not supported.
Hell, there isn't even a newspaper reporter.
Good to see the strategy of the airport board. Lame duck. Wait until April. SF, have watched every council mtg and read minutes from the camera and tech problem ones. Those questions have never been answered. Surely nobody was really expecting them to be. Show us where they ever have been. Sending out a thanks for the tracking, 22 and small. Interesting read down there of your Oct. post. Here we are a year later and listening to the same b.s. Confidence and optimism from the public when they finally got enough guts to put in the new board didn't last long, did it? Follow the airport and lame duck.
This chamber vendor has tanked the accommodations revenues in this town since early 2008. Notice Hecksel never even posts the sales tax revenues every month and quarter, they're in the toilet is why. We don't even have lights on in our hotels at night, but can't talk about that in public, can we? Our voices are censored and blocked. I'll send out my thanks to smalltown for enabling comments again.
The other good thing coming up is grant requests. We bailed the chamber to the tune of $30 grand from that last year and the only decent thing they pulled out of that expenditure was Oyster. With worse than ever before lodging numbers and sales tax revenues, that translates out to Glenwood getting some mo-jo out of council who is not going to like turning down our Barracudas, our Market, our fireworks and making the pittance even more pitiful to feed and shelter our hungry and homeless.
If the threat of losing a political race and worrying about the drained bank account, doesn't wake CC up like a cold shower now, then by all means. Let them sit there and debate the roundhouse, planting pretty trees and whether or not to get rid of back-in parking or let the ghettos build more slums.
Their call.
So very, very sorry to hear today that one more of you is suffering.
There is something very, very wrong when none in our community who lead us, who are supposed to be protecting us do not stand up and put a stop to all of it. It is a given that since last May 20, 2010, the target of your #8 has been contained. Yet the most vile of human cruelty has resulted in tragedy.
My understanding and my observations reveal to me the truth of how many others who dare to try to protect in the absence of authorities are finding themselves harmed, scorned by a very few and outcast. Learning the identity of this one that just came into the open fire, I am stunned that such a strong standing in our region would find themselves so.
I commend your group for what you are doing.
I am so, so sorry that you are all now hopelessly stuck in the shadows until a court can act.
There were some links to songs posted by the avatar calling herself 'mweaver' in a local hub. I am reminded of those for you all tonight.
On the bright side, there is no shadow of doubtnow that these council members with open seats will soon be gone.
Kaup has made a lot of off the wall comments on council but never one more inappropriate than her use of the word hearsay the other night.
Steckler can't talk about the reason the tourism board wanted to take over the financial? Could it possibly be because now they have a D.A. wanting to clear his name breathing down their neck? So something probably as innocent as the new board just wanted to finally get a grip on the money accountability can't even be spoken about? This heat you feel now is nothing compared the upcoming political heat of races.
Here's the thing about hearsay Councilwoman Kaup. It's really called gossip. Since this council, the boards who have done nothing for the last couple years but hide behind the hearsay you've used to bless your chamber with while letting your oath to 81601 go right out the window, you don't get to condemn or caution against hearsay now.
No worries about the people staying on point, we've known for for some times now that the hearsay you just put our beautiful town in the mud with is nothing but gossip. Guess the only good thing to come out of this now is that if I were the City of Glenwood Springs, I sure as heck would not want the likes of Martin Beeson breathing down my neck.
Maybe we're about to get that forensic audit we have needed for what, 14 years?
Missed it but plan on watching as soon as it gets up on the site. Sure is unbelievable from what I hear that they can sit there on recap and act like they're dealing with new news.
which hearsay, ms. kaup?
the past two years that you have blessed your help nobody can fire with?
or the hearsay of the past 18 years or so that your peers have blessed with turned backs?
which one? pray, do tell.
sending out a shout of thanks to small.
for stopping the hearsay and sticking to the facts.
Not buyin, Councilman Steckler. Even if it was dressed up to look like a bookkeeping need, your new tourism board had a gut feeling on that bookkeeping and you didn't back them up. There is no innocence in the facts that you have a vendor still in control of city funds and you are not. When you seed your oversight board with board members of a vendor, that is not proper oversight. Besides, you can't claim with absolute certainty innocence at the chamber is there, can you? After all, that would have taken oversight for at least your tenure, wouldn't it? Something you do not have because we have never, ever, ever had a forensic audit done. Maybe that D.A. putting pressure on you is right on the money. You should not be talking about finances. Why couldn't you have done same over the last two years instead of blessing 'hearsay' with holy water? I'll go along with the word that we have some really great runners coming in for council seats. Vote a change in all four seats, Glenwood Springs. Then look at recalls on the remaining three seats if it is shown that there is a single one of these guys that has turned a blind eye.
The answer to how to view on the city's site without your IP tracked or not, is one we cannot answer. Just do not know, we assume they track. You should be able, if you are concerned for your anonymity, to just come to this post and click on the city's link. Our guess is that will show as safeplace as the referring IP, which in turn tracks back to us through #8.
I've always been confused about what you guys are saying. Reading WingMan in this context and that email, I think I understand now. When they (chamber, council members, Marianne's buddies)have been saying since at least 2009 that the latest whistle doesn't know what she's talking about on finances, this whole time she has had nothing to do with any of it? If this is true and council has just let this run, the ramifications to the city are off the charts. Everybody knows all these questions have never been answered, why would anyone destroy a person and their whole life even thinking they could get away with that?
this was a massacre of her life and mv managed to get that massacre sanctioned by this sitting city council. why? great question. we should be thinking that our esteemed council would have asked it. this thing for us has gone on for 23 years emphasis on the last 14. it's gone on for her for over 2. there are now 7 citizens running from basalt to new castle that have been hit with the same virus attack and one of them is now going through the same thing she did with mv cronies calling their business clients new and old and trashing them. fortunately, he's a business with deep enough stability that he will weather the storm, unlike her who had this done to her at the time the recession hit. to give taxpayers a boost on this, word has it that our sitting council's blessing has even paid for the virus part because it's verified coming from chamber virus marketing. the same eggs in a basket that 81601 is trying to pry off us and can't get it moved with a crowbar. nobody knows what to think or do anymore this thing is so out of control.
I have never approved of the viral tourism promotion. It's too easy to have it get twisted for one thing and the other is the way the Chamber does it. It's constant and they charge us through the nose for it. Most respectable marketers set up the targets for the virus, then put it on auto-pilot and let it generate. They don't have full-time employees sitting there. Hire Trent Blizzard to handle it all and take it out of the marketer's hands completely is the way it should be done. A marketer is supposed to set up the content, not get all their overhead paid that they run multiple entities under at taxpayer expense.
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